This past Sunday (May 30th, 2010), Shelley Boettcher from the Calgary Herald wrote a feature about us dubbed Wine Online. If you happened to miss it, you can checkout a scanned copy by clicking the above thumbnail image, or read the entire article online.
We are very flattered by this fantastic press!
There is an unwritten (it is probably written somewhere) rule that Calgarians should do most of their heavy outside planting around the May long weekend. Generally, we're past most of the frost and snow, but since Calgary weather is “changeable” you need to be ready to move either way.
Last year, we planted before the May long weekend and it snowed in late May. Remember that? Well that day of snow and lows in the negatives killed our tender cucumber and pepper plants. So this year, we're doing our planting in two stages.
We recently planted potatoes, radishes, parsnips, carrots, beets, lettuce, onions and peas. All of those can take a light frost. However we are holding off on planting the pumpkins, melons, peppers and tomatoes. While it was 27 degrees and sunny earlier this week, the long weekend and the following week looks suspiciously sketchy with lots of rain and lows in the +2 area. We need temps above +5 at night before we can plant our tender veggies.
The image above is a close-up of our rows. We planted a row of radishes and then a row of parsnips. Why? Parsnips take 100 – 120 days to mature while radishes mature in 45 – 50 days. That means by the time the radishes are done, we can pull them out of the ground leaving plenty of room for the parsnips to mature. We're essentially using the same ground for two plants, maximizing our harvest from a small urban area.
Here is another little hint for any would be urban gardeners. When you grow vegetables from seed and keep them inside for the first 4 – 6 weeks, the lack of wind and climate controlled conditions makes the plants extremely tender. So carefully harden them off, by placing them outside during the day in a somewhat shady spot for at least a week. That will help the plants develop some stem strength and also get ready for less than ideal growing conditions.
Some people complain about Calgary's weather. They act surprised when we get snow in April or May, but a good urban farmer knows the general weather trends and acts appropriately. That's why we start our non-hardy seedlings inside in early April and plan for our major outdoor plantings in mid to late May.
Therefore the snow that Calgary got for a week in early May didn't hold us up. In fact, we ordered 1 cubic yard of top quality soil from Eagle Lake back when it was snowing and had it delivered on Friday so that we were prepared to take advantage of the decent weather last weekend.
The first weekends work is never fun, it is a lot of manual labour. We transferred the soil back into the garden. Then we tilled the entire area at the same time as we weeded. We then spread the new soil around and tilled once again. That is about 8 hours of hard work but which is crucial to the upcoming growing season. If you don't till the soil many vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, onions and potatoes won't grow well in cement-like conditions.
With the weather looking good for the next couple of weeks, we'll do our planting in two stages, cold hardy plants (potatoes, carrots, onions, radishes, peas, lettuce) first and then non-hardy plants which need temps above 5 degrees Celsius (peppers, melons, pumpkins) after. Watch for twitter updates as the weather improves and things start to grow!
I'll be in the Rockies this weekend at the Banff stop of the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival. If you are at the tasting hall on Saturday and see me, introduce yourself and we'll sample something together. If Banff isn't in the cards for you, I will be doing my best to live tweet the event so if you're so inclined, follow me on twitter at @abryksa for the details.
Take care friends and have a fantastic weekend. I hope to see some of you out in Banff.
The weekend is creeping up pretty quick here, which means it's time to start thinking about what you might be enjoying alongside a nice relaxing dinner this weekend.
There's always great value to be had when shopping in South America, and the Clos de Los Siete is a fine example under twenty bucks. Fairly widely distributed, you should be able to find this almost anywhere. However if you can find the 2006 edition it should be great to drink now.
Adrian reviewed this back in October 2008 on Reading for New Times:
The 2006 release of Clos de Los Siete is a blend of 50% Malbec, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Syrah overseen by Michel Rolland, a prominent and famous consulting oenologist from France who is known for fruit forward wines with influences of oak.
Maybe next weekend will be warm enough to crack open a chilled chardonnay. 😉
Last time we explained why we are featuring the Urban Farm Experience on WineCollective.ca, but now it is time to show what we’ll be growing at WineCollective HQ.
The picture you see here is our seedlings with about 2.5 weeks growth. We started seedlings in 4 inch peat pots to avoid Calgary’s unusually hostile spring weather (as I write this, we’re getting a nasty spring storm). We plan on planting on the May long weekend, but for some of the more hardy varieties we may plant a couple weeks early while the less hardy may stay inside until June. Some plants like peas or lettuce can take temps down to -5, kale can take temps down to -15 (!?!) but others such as peppers and melons are not cold hardy at all and will die if temps drop below 5 degrees Celsius.
In the picture we have two types of pumpkins (Giant and Orange Smoothie), three types of melons (Muskmelon, Watermelon and Cantaloupe), and green heirloom peppers (which we collected the seeds from a healthy pepper we grew LAST year, yes we didn’t even buy those seeds). I know what you’re thinking. Cantaloupe and watermelon in Calgary?!?? You guys are crazy. Yeah we may be crazy. Full disclosure, we have no idea if the melons will grow. The seeds are hybrids which allow them to grow quickly in short growing seasons (like we have here in Calgary), but we still may not have the heat necessary.
Part of the fun of urban gardening is the micro-climates. Out in the country surrounding Calgary there is 0% chance of growing melons, but due to the urban heat island effect, often our urban farm is 2 – 5 degrees warmer than outlying areas overnight, when those melons need the heat. We grew very good sized celery last year, which was also supposed to not be suitable for Calgary’s climate. So we’ll see!
Other than the above, we have a wide selection of produce including potatoes, carrots, two different types of onions, tomatoes, garlic, radishes, parsnips, beets, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, mesclun lettuce (from Provence, home of some great Grenache wines), and two types of peas.
We tried to grow cucumbers and brussel sprouts last year but failed on both counts. We ran out of growing season for the brussel sprouts and a cold snap in late May/early June doomed our cucumbers, as well as a couple of pepper plants.
We plan on tilling the garden this weekend (watch for twitter updates!) and we'll add mulch to the soil to make sure it is nutrient rich. We've also sketched out a rough plan for our 750 sq ft urban farm, but otherwise, we’re just watching the seedlings. Those huge seedlings in the back are the giant pumpkins. 100+ pound pumpkins here we come!
Last year, some of the staff of WineCollective decided to see what types of food would be able to grow in an urban garden at the de-facto WineCollective HQ. Behind HQ there was a stretch of grass, a large cement parking pad adjoining the back alley where people liked to dump unwanted furniture like stained couches and broken dishwashers, as well as a rundown shed with pieces of discarded carpet included. It wasn’t all bad however; the lot was south facing and gets a ton of sun. There were some raspberry bushes planted who knows how many years ago and a long suffering and diseased crab apple tree. We decided on a drastic makeover.
We destroyed the rotting back fence and rundown shed ourselves with sledgehammers and crowbars, which is something that I highly recommend by the way. We cleaned up typical back alley garbage. We found (among other things) a Hostess Chips bag with those little yellow orange and red gremlins which I believe were discontinued sometime in the late 1980s.
The cement pad was taken out by a bobcat and loaded into not one but two dump trucks to be taken to a concrete recycling facility south of Calgary. Two dump truck loads of screened loam were brought in, a new fence was erected, the diseased crab apple was (lovingly) taken down with a chainsaw and all of a sudden we had a 400 sq ft urban garden.
Now 2010, in a flurry of synergy, we have decided to live blog the 2010 WineCollective Urban Farm Experience. We don’t call it a garden because once we took the crab apple tree out, we also annexed some of the grass and are now dealing with about 750 sq ft of growing area and to be honest it is starting to feel like a farm.
At WineCollective we enjoy helping people learn about really great wines. We’re all about education and bringing you extraordinary wine to your door. Well, we also have a passion for locally grown produce. There is nothing better than knowing exactly what you are eating and exactly what went into its production. Most people would agree that a fine wine deserves to be paired with a fine meal and more often those meals are locally sourced.
For example, Rouge, here in Calgary, recently made it on a list of the top 100 restaurants in the world. What is Rouge known for? Locally sourced ingredients, including produce grown in their own garden, which the Globe calls “particularly impressive feat in weather finicky Calgary – where fresh produce is harvested daily”.
Further in that Globe article one of the chefs is quoted as saying “We let the garden dictate the menu… what we’re trying to promote here is a sense of place”. A sense of place in the wine industry is known as terroir. By understanding how local growing conditions can impact produce (whether parsnips or grapes) we think we will have a better understanding of wine and food together.
Also, we’d enjoy it if you learned something about urban gardening too. It is surprisingly easy and extremely satisfying. This summer you’ll see twitter updates (@WineCollective) as well as blog updates. High tech meets low tech. Blackberry meets blackberries.
Follow along as we update you frequently on our Urban Farm Experience.
WineCollective is all about education. In our diverse packages, we ensure that members receive a wide assortment of wines from different geographies and varietals so that they can expand their palate.
But we don't expect everyone to know everything (or even anything) about wine. All of the WineCollective staff continue to learn about wine every day and while we are experts who take our jobs seriously we know we will always keep learning. We are of the view that even the most knowledgeable wine connoisseurs continue to learn every time they sample a new wine.
WineCollective was created to equally cater to the oenophile who wants to discuss how the terrior of Burgunday shapes exquisite Pinot Noirs and to the average wine-lover who doesn't know what terrior means.
Terrior, while a French term with no literal English translation, can be understood as a wine's “sense of place” or the “total natural environment of any viticultural site” which includes climate, sunlight, topography, soil geology and hydrology.
If you want to learn more about wine, we have come up with a simple (and free!) way of doing so. Follow WineCollective on Twitter (@WineCollective) and daily we will be publishing wine tidbits which you can use to impress your friends at parties. Unless of course, your friends are WineCollective members and then they'll know all of this and more!
WineCollective is pleased to announce a great new package! The Rosso!
Like the name implies, the Rosso is made up of 100% red wine. Usually WineCollective members who have subscribed to our other fine packages receive a mixture of red, white, rose and sparkling wines. However, for those people who just can't get enough red, we created a package specifically for you!
With four bottles a month, you can expect a strong mixture of varietals (it isn't 100% Shiraz that's for sure!) which will allow Rosso subscribers to continue to expand their paletes.
Visit the Packages page to subscribe. If you are a current WineCollective member, you can change your package to the Rosso free of charge. Visit the “My Account” page for more information or feel free to give us a call at 403.648.9094 or by email at thecellar@winecollective.ca
WineCollective would like to let all of our valued Cartier subscribers know that starting April 1, 2010 the price of a monthly Cartier membership package will increase by $2.50 from $35.00 to $37.50 ($45 including shipping). 100% of the additional price will be passed along to members in the form of higher value wines.
The decision to increase the price of the package was due partially to our realization that even a small increase in wine value per month could yield significantly better wines for our members. Additionally, in our recent customer satisfaction survey over 80% of Cartier members suggested that a price increase would be appropriate.
WineCollective is also excited to announce a new all-red wine package starting in April – the Rosso! The new Rosso package will include four red bottles per month and will be priced at $85 (including shipping).
The Evolution package will continue to have an assortment of red, white, rose and sparkling wines, while the Cartier package will return to its roots and will feature a more diverse mixture in wines. If you are looking for a consistently red experience we encourage you to subscribe to the Rosso!
If you are interested in changing packages, please log into your WineCollective account, cancel your current package and resubscribe. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line at 403.648.9094 or email us at thecellar@winecollective.ca
Courtesy of Willow Park Wines and Spirits..
Willow Park Wines and Spirits would like to make an EXCLUSIVE NO CHARGE offer to Wine Collective members. Please have a look at the 2 events below and contact Mike Shaddock for tickets and information!
We are long overdue for a look behind the Iron Curtain. The market has slowly been filling up with an eclectic selection of interesting wines from places like Slovenia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. This evening introduce your palate to the sweet wines of Moldova, the rich reds of Georgia and the renowned bubbles of Crimea. Broken Plate restaurant promises great food to complement the wines.
Family owned and operated, Kunde Estate Winery & Vineyards produces ultra-premium, estate-grown and handcrafted wines in the finest traditions of the renowned Sonoma Valley. Over the past one hundred years, five generations of the Kunde family have farmed a 1,850 acre estate in Sonoma County. Kunde Estate is committed to ethical and sustainable farming. In 2008 Kunde Family Estate received the GEELA Award, the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for their sustainable practices and facilities, which is the state of California’s highest environmental honour. Join Jeff Kunde as he shares with you some of their wines and learn about their eco-tours.
Mike Shaddock
Willowpark Wines & Spirits
403-296-1640 ext 250
As part of WineCollective’s quest to be on cutting edge of wine education and social networking in Canada, we have put together a very short survey on potential new features.
The survey will ask you to answer twelve questions about the WineCollective experience. If you have had any burning questions or comments that you wanted to make us aware of, this is the perfect opportunity!
It should take you less than five minutes to complete and will help us make WineCollective an even better forum for wine education.
Click on the survey link below to be taken directly to the survey website.
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/226353/winecollective-survey
Thanks for your help!
The WineCollective Crew
